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Terrorism Financing Task Force Releases Results of Two-Year Investigation


Washington, Dec 20 -

WASHINGTON – The House Financial Services Committee’s Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing on Tuesday released a bipartisan report of its 12 month long probe into the threat terror financing poses to the U.S. financial system.

“Fighting the financial war against terror demands constant innovation and vigilance.  I want to commend Chairman Fitzpatrick, Ranking Member Lynch, Vice Chairman Pittenger and all members of the Task Force for their leadership and hard work to identify areas where we must upgrade and improve our nation’s ability to starve the terrorists of the financial resources they need to carry out their evil attacks. I look forward to working with Members in the coming Congress to implement their important findings,” said Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).

Task Force Chairman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) added, “For two years, including 11 hearings, our task force investigated the financial mechanisms terrorists use to fund their activities. We discovered highly critical vulnerabilities, namely federal information sharing and inter-agency coordination. The report released today will serve as a guide for the next Congress in crafting legislation to thwart terrorist groups from carrying out their vicious global operations. Combatting terror financing is a significant and often overlooked component of our national security strategy. This report signals to the next Congress and Treasury Department that we must continually evaluate and improve our response toward international terror and criminal financing.”

“Over the past year, the Task Force to Investigate Terrorism Financing has conducted critically important work to identify solutions to address 21st Century threats.  In conjunction with the legislation we passed this Congress, I look forward to implementing the recommendations found in this report as we continue efforts to defeat radical Islamic terrorism,” said Vice Chair Pittinger (R-NC).

“For the last two years, the Task Force has been examining ways to improve the federal government’s approach to combatting the flow of funds to terrorist groups. This report incorporates essential components of the Task Force’s strategy to address illicit terrorist financing activity, which threatens our national security, financial system, and the international trade system. Thank you to Task Force Chairman Fitzpatrick, Vice Chairman Pittenger, Chairman Hensarling, and Ranking Member Waters for recognizing that putting a stop to terrorist financing is critical to improving our national security. I look forward to continuing to work on a bipartisan basis in the 115th Congress to codify our approach to countering terrorism financing and hopefully augmenting the number of Treasury attachés who are on the front lines of this effort,” said Congressman Stephen F. Lynch (D-Boston).

As a result of the hard work of its 21 members, Task Force leaders introduced several bipartisan bills aimed at addressing some of the threats its investigation identified:

In addition to the five bills the Task Force produced, the bipartisan report made several recommendations for further Congressional attention, including:

Text of the full report can be found on the Financial Services Committee Website, here.